Doctor A.R. Eveloff moved to Springfield from St.Joseph, MO, to open solo practice. In doing so he and Dr. James Graham, who had begun his practice in surgery a year earlier, became friends.The two soon found that they shared similar ideas about joint or group practice, such as they had experience in the large metropolitan teaching hospitals.
Before long they found that Doctor B Lyman Stewart, who had recently come to Springfield to practice Urology, had similar thoughts about group or clinic practice. This started some serious discussions on the subject. Convinced that the future of medicine lay in the practice of sub-specialties, and with a shared spirit of innovation, five visionary physicians (Dr. James Graham, Dr. A.R. Eveloff, Dr. B. Lyman Stewart, Dr. E. Harold Ennis, and Dr. Richard F. Herndon) agreed to join forces.
By spring of 1939, a partnership agreement had been written and the group prepared to build a new, 24-room medical office building. On November 1, 1939, the partnership, which would eventually become known as Springfield Clinic, officially opened its doors at 421 South 6th Street. The business arrangements were simple. Five phones, were located in each doctor's consulting room but were answered in the front office. There were two main lines to the building but no switchboard. An interoffice communication system was signaled by buzzers on the desks. All patient records, insurance forms, and bookkeeping were done in longhand. Business meetings were held at irregular intervals and were frequently of a minor nature. Third party payments were unusual. The planned layout of the building served very well, with spacious halls and well-lighted rooms. There was no air conditioning; screens and fans sufficed. The laboratory was housed in one small room. The x-ray equipment consisted of a 100 milliampere General Electric all-purpose x-ray unit and was used both from x-ray filming and fluoroscopy.
Obstetrics was barely a few years away from the third year medical students delivering babies in homes and apartments, supervised by residents with a backup chief resident or attending physician available in the hospital. After World War II, General Surgery in the Clinic relinquished gynecologic procedures to Dr. Ennis' department.
The initial 100 milliampere General Electric X-Ray unit that was purchased for the opening of the Clinic in 1939 served as the solo piece of equipment until 1952. Along with the move to the new building that year, a second X-ray unit, a Picker 1940 model, that had to be set by impulses and not by time in seconds, was installed. The Clinic advanced not only to two units in twin radiographic rooms but also began its long association with the staff of the Radiology Department of Memorial Medical Center. Dr. J Edward King, up to that time the only Radiologist at Memorial Hospital, was joined in the hospital by Dr David Lewis who affiliated with the hospital as Associate Radiologist. This gave Dr. King sufficient freedom to do upper gastrointestinal and colon x-rays at the Clinic three mornings a week and to read all of the day's films later in the afternoon. The chief technician at that time supervised both laboratory and x-ray.
The first Business Manager, a position to be call Administrator in later years, was Llewelyn Conn. He remained with the Clinic until 1942 when four of the five partners went into military services.